George langtford



G. LANGFORD `uly 22, 1930. METHOD 0F REPAIRING WORN RAIL JoINTs IN TRACKS original File Aug. 27, 192.7

` Gea/fg alley/@fd Reissued July 22, 1930 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE GEORGE LANGFORD, OF JOLIET, ILLINOIS, ASSIGNOR'TO MCKENN :PROCESS C0., Ol'

' .I OLIET,'ILI.|INOIS, .A CORPORATION OF ILLINOIS METHOD OF REPAIRING WORN RAIL JOINTS IN TRACKS AOriginal No. 1,.670,515, dated May 22, 1928, Serial No. 215,985, rled August 27, 1927. Application for reissue led May 12, 1930. Serial No. 451,770.

My invention relates to a method of treating or repairingworn rail joints to prolong their useful life.

The usual form of rail joints comprises two bars one on cach side of the adjacent ends of the rail bolted together, which bars .may or may not be angle bars. A railjoint loses its usefulness when the pounding of t-he train Wheel over the rail causes the loss by abrasion or friction of metal on the Vsurface of the bars where they come in contact with the rail, these surfaces being usually called shing or bearing surfaces. This point of the rail joint is the first 'to give v away and since the rails are lnot held firmly pairing these bars with new ones. I v joints may be repaired 1n this manner untll in a vertical direction it is necessary to replace the bars with -new ones. As disclosed in my copending application Serial No. 686,140, I have described mending and rethe edges of the rail at thev joints become battered and worn from the constant pounding of the wheels of a train .passing over 25 them. When this occurs, the joint can no longer be lused and the present practice is to tear up the rail and transmit it to a point where the vbattered ends may-be' sawed 0H and be relaid at some lother place. Each time this cold sawing takes place the length undesirable of the rail is shortened. Inaddition in ,order to repair wori'rrail joints of this character it is necessary to tear up the old rai-ls and la new ones. Not only is this but itinvolves a greatv deal of unnecessary labor and delay occasioned byI the interrupted service.

Attem ts have been made to avoid all this trou le by `replacing battered ends or 4o edges of the rail holding in joints by welding and by employing new bars. The ditliculty with this method of treatment hasv been that when the edges of the rail become battered and worn in this manner it 1nvariably follows that the fishing surfaces on the rail, that ijs/the points where the. bars are resting are very much worn. Thus the mere reconditioning of the edges of the rail at the -'oints and replacing with new bars is not su cient, nor-can it be used. In view Rail of this fact the method of cold sawing formerly described" is continued in vogue in spite of its obvious limitation as to expense, labor, and delay.

The principal object of my invention is to restore worn rail joints of this character in a highly satisfactory and eiicient manner and without removing the rails or materially affecting-train service over them.- `The tre.

mendous importance of this step is obvious since it permits railroad service to be maintained at high efficiency at all times. This follows in View of the fact that the tracks or rails in need of repair are the ones that vedges ofthe rail and also the wearing on the fishing surfaces" of the-rail and bar;

' Fig. 4 isa side elevation of an improved -bar which is formed from the worn bar in order to compensate for the Wear;

Fig. 5 isan end elevationof the same; Fig. Gis a cross section of a rail' joint along` the line 6-6 of Fig. 1 showingv the sliing or bearing surfaces;

Fig. 7 is a cross section of the pressemployed for forming this bar;land

Fig. 8 shows the method of carrying out'my l improved process..

They action of the wheels of the train iuwearingthejoints can be very readily seen in'Figs. 1 and 2. The train wheel .passing depresses the rail 11 just before it reaches the joints. This depression brings about wear in the 'bearing or fishing surfaces 12 and 13 Where the rail is .supported and stren hened vertically bythe bar. Not only o'es this downward movement of the rail bring about a certain amount of wear in the lfishing surfaces of the bar 14 but also of the bearing or iishing surfacesat thepoint where the bar contacts the rail. Since the rail 11 is lower than the rail 15 at the time of the passing of the wheel from the rail 11 to the rail 15 a great deal'of wear will occur at the point 16 or head ofthe rail.

.The lowering of the rail 15 and the rising of the rail 11 again brings about wear in the fishing surfaces of the bar and also of both rails. After being in service for a considerable length of timethe joints become worn on either side of the rail as may be' seen from Fig. 3. Thereare I ive points of wear. Onefof these points is at the surfaces.

at the heads of the rail forming the joint,

ysuch as 16 and 17 the bearing surfaces on the headr portion of the"rail namely 18 and 19: `the third, the bearing portions of the bar that supports the rail,.namely 20 and 21; the bearing portions of the bar that is supported by the flanged portions of the rail; namely 22v and 23 anda fifthly and lastly. the-bearing or fishing surfaces adjacent the flange portion ofthe rail, namely 24 and 25. f

Mymethod of repairing rail joints-comprises taking the old and worn bars,'heating them an amount vsuilicient so that they. may

be' easily worked,.though noty sutlicielitly to destroy their temper, putting them in `a press and subjecting them to pressure so that crown surfaces 26 and l27' are formed atthe upperand lowersurfaces or edges of the bar at the points constituting the fishing or bearj ing surfaces'. The press lhas bosses orrproj'ectionsthat are adaptedto fit within the holes such as 28 of the bar so as to prevent 'these holeslbecoming distortedvunder pressure. This method of treating worn bars has been `fully described in my application Serial No. 686,140- yI have disclosed indetail the method'of forming lthese crowned bars from the worn bars.-

'It will be seen that-the yedges this crown bar forma dihedral'angleso as to .support the head of therail.

. It will understood thatjthe shovirgiii'g' `of the action4 ofthe wheelf'ii .passing over a joint and in bringing about the. wearing thereof are "considerably lexaggeratedl to show the tendencies involved. 4Even though the joint is new and very tight the same tend` -istrue because` it is'well known to those who are 4familiar with thesubj'ect that the passing of a wheel .over'the rail causes it to. flex and modern road beds are designed toperrnit and encourage this flexing. The .load of thewheel encies are involved.A This is. a concentrated load. and as it4 shifts along'it tends to move the point of depression along the rail so that the rail actually moves downward'` and upward as the loadpasses on to and olf of it, the result being f that when the rail passesover a joint even 4tion of the bar not only surfaces ofthe rail. i

if the joint is absolutely tightgcso far as drawing up the bolts is concerned and so far -as the contactbetween the fishing lsurfaces is concerned the bending of the bar to even a slight degree results in a rubbing action between the surfaces 18 and 20, 19 and 21, 22 and 24, and 23 and 25, with theresult that continuous rubbing wears away the metal to 'the point where actual play occurs and then the pounding action which follows theexist? ence of the play accentuates the play and the joints rapidly deteriorate. In addition this flexing and pounding bring about the wear at the head of the rail on the surfaces 16 and17.`.

The expansion and contraction .due to` changes in temperature is another contributing factor to wear though this is not nec-,

e'ssarily concentrated `at the centralpoint of the bar as is the action of the wheel.

4It will-thusbe seen that by replacing the worn bar -with the crown bar and forcing it into place that the worn fishing surfaces are filled in-and to all intent and purposes the joint is as good as new. -The crowned porrepairs the fishing surfaces ofthe bar but also the fishing The angle at theedge of the reformed .bari varies fromv the central @partoflthe bar toward the edges for the purpose of securing a uniform set between the bar and the-rail. ItI will thus be seen that this replacement removes all points of.r

wear in the joints leaving only the head portions 16 andl'? of the rail at the joints. However,v unless this head portion ofthe rail is repaired the joint is useless after .a

certain amount of wearv occurs andthe trackistorn up and the worn endjof the rail sawed ofi' andrelaid at some other point. -As'pointed'out before, this is a very expensive operation notonlyfrom the standpoint of direct-cost but also of delay Aand confusion cilities. v This follows,when it is considered, that the joints on the tracks that secure the most wear are 'those in constant use, which are the main tracks. Consequently,V it becomes highly important to provide lsome means-for reforming the battered head'o-f'the rail.y

1I accomplish this result by welding new from the standpoint metal tothe 'worn'and battered ends 16 andV 17 *of ythe rail in any well known orapproved manner so that the rail head takes the rail substantially .the same in configuration as before.

'Itwill be appreciated that it is essential that the crown-bar be employed reform ing the rail joint as it is impossible to prop- .erly weld the fishing surfaces of the rail and i 1 bar and certainly-not without tearingnp the tracks; and when this is d one cold sawing might. as well be resorted to.

in transportation fa-.

n n i the form shown in Fig. Swith the head .of-1'204 It will be apparent from the foregoing that my method of reforming worn rail joints briefly consists' in reforming the Worn bars into crown bars by which the fishing surfaces of both the bar and the rail are repaired and then by welding metal to crews-that do the actual repair work. In

this instance the method will consist in taking the old bars fromv the joints and replacing them with crowned bars and then proceeding.

j with the welding process. It will be appreorder to repair four of the five .points of wear.

ciated `that this method of repairing worn rail joints is an exceedingly cheap one, saving not only a tremendous amount of money over the old cold sawing method where the .tracl had to be torn up but rendering itunnecessary to bypass tralic for a considerable length of time causingl confusion and delay in traflic schedules. i

It will-be appreciated that unless a crown bar is employed i n repairing the joints a proper renewal cannot be made. For linstance if an attempt were made to renew the joints by simply placing a new bar -on either side of the rail and bolting them together, while the ishingor bearing surfaces on the bar would be repaired there would stillremainthe bearing surfaces on the railboth on the end portion and the flange portion.v

Consequently a crowned bar must be used in It is an essential feature of my invention, that the bar be of suitable shape and height to fit the worn fishing surfaces of the raill ends. This I accomplish by increasing the height of the bar to a suitable extent and properly shaping it for. effecting the desired iit when applied to worn rail.- The increase in height of the bar is what I term crowningr the bar. This crowning is preferably appliedy v at. the center portion of the bar, asin the spe- -citic form of my invention illustrated by way of example, or it may-be applied to the bar in any other suitable manner. My invention contemplates the use of rail joint bars of Vsuitable height and shape to tit Worn rail ends, whether such b'ars'be ofthespecific shape illustrated'or of other suitablel shape, as willbe clear from the preceding description. The method of my" invention compre-l hends, therefore, thetting to Worn rail ofbars offsuitable height to properly fit into the worn fishing surfaces of therail ends, and the restoration of the rail heads.

It will be appreciated that while I have described my method as employing straight bars if desired angle bars may be treated in the same manner as explained in my Patent 1,562,423'issued November 17, 1925.

`While I have shown and described a specific 'embodiment of my invention, it will be understood that I do not'desire to be limited to certain embodiments but wish to protect by Letters Patent all such changes,

modiiications, and deviations as come within the scope of4 the appended claims.

I claim:

l. The process of renewing a worn rail joint which comprises in combination, form' ing the worn vbars vinto crowned bars, placing them back upon the rails with newbolts,

and weldingnew metal to the head of each frail to form them to their originalshape.

2. The process of renewing a worn rail joint which comprises removing the worn bars from the joints, forming them into crowned bars, p acing them back u on` the rails, and welding new metal tothel ead of the angle bars andl heating, thenredistributing their metal by pressure so that the dimensions of contact surfaces and draw space Vand size and spacing of bolt holes are the same as those of the original new bars, re-

placing them upon the rails with new bolts, fastening .them together to form a. joint and lwelding thel heads 4of the rails to reform them to their'original shape.l l

The process of renewing aworn rail jolnt which consists of removingthe yworn vbars from thejoint, replacing them with crowned bars, and addingl metal to the heads of the adjacent ra-ils to reform them to their original shape.

6. The process of renewing 'a worn rail joint for the purpose for which it was originallyv vemployed which consists in removing the angle bars and heating, th'en redistributing'their .metal by pressure so that .thedif mensions-of contact surfaces and draw space and size and'spacing of bolt holes are the same as those ofthe original new bars,'re placing -them upon the rails with new bolts, fastening them together to form a joint and adding metal to .the heads of the adjacent rails 'to reform theml totheir original shape.

7. The process of renewing. a wornrail joint which .consists in removing the worn bars from-the joint, replacing them withwith new bolts and permanently adding metal to battered heads of the railsto bring them to their original shape.

'8. The process of renewing a worn'rail A crowned bars, fastening the bars in place' restoring the heads of the rail ends While in track.

= 10. The process: of renewing a. Worn rail joint, which consists in removing the Worn bars from the joint, replacing the Worn bars by bars having at least their center portions of greaterl height than the original bars and shaped when out of the'joint to fit the worn fishing surfaces of the rail ends, and restoring the heads of the rail ends While in track.

In Witness whereof, I hereunto subscribe rmy name this Bdday of Mav, 1930.

GEORGE LANGFORD 

